Home Health Devices to Double by 2018

An aging population, the proliferation of connected devices, and the growing need to contain healthcare costs will produce a spike in the global market for home health technologies in the coming years.

Get ready for an explosion of home healthcare devices and solutions over the coming five years. A number of major megatrends are converging: an aging population that will consume more healthcare, the proliferation of connected devices, and the growing need to contain healthcare costs. These trends will produce a spike in the global market for home health technologies in the coming years, according to a report from IHS Technology.

The report, "Home Health Technology Report – 2014," reveals that worldwide revenue for home healthcare devices and services will rise to $12.6 billion in 2018, up from $5.7 billion in 2013. IHS notes that the home healthcare market consists of six distinct segments: independent living services, consumer medical devices, telehealth, personal emergency response systems (PERS), wearable technologies, and health gaming (games designed to improve health).

The report noted that home healthcare products will experience technology convergence that will make the devices richer in features. These products will see a blending of Internet connectivity, interoperability with other devices, big-data analytics, miniaturization, and wearable technology. This has already occurred to some extent with mobile PERS devices, which are able to act as gateway devices for telehealth, or activity monitors with optical heart-rate sensors.

Healthcare IT vendors are developing highly connected and interoperable solutions taking advantage of patient-generated data to support the decision-making process of healthcare professionals, and to create the inevitable bridge between clinical care and home health.

The report noted that the quantity of patient-generated data will grow exponentially with the increasing use of home health technologies. Big data in healthcare will determine the success of population health management, which is essential to the business model of accountable-care organizations and their objective of providing value-based care.

That makes sense @docdivakar. I recently saw a heart rate monitor "harness" that had to be worn for several days and was a bit surprised by the low-tech nature of it. We definitely have a ways to go, and that makes the puzzle fun.

@JanineLove: I would say the adoption rate for wearables is right along expected lines. There are many reasons for this -hardware, software/apps and ecosystem challenges.

Regarding hardware, the current generation of SoCs need to go thru radical redesign for power and functionality. A good majority of today's wearables are based on yesterday's SoCs clocked/throttled down to function in a 'low power' mode. A radical new approach is needed and the recent announcements by Qualcomm, Intel, Imagination, TI and many others seem to address this.

At the same time, the ecosystem challenge needs to be addressed. One use case I was alluding to in my comment below addresses how the existing system can evolve to adopt the use of health monitoring via wearables and integrate in preventive and inverventional medicine.

It's surprising to me that this is happening as slowly as it is. I would have thought that the home health market's size would have driven more market penetration of wearable home health devices by now. Once items are availalbe, I think "double" might be a conservative estimate.

There is no surprise that the Home Health devices to double by 2018.If medical device kits are well designed, the instructions are clear, and devices are simple to put together and use, this prediction should help lower medical cost and provide consumers an option.Think about the computer system ten years ago.Putting together a computer system was very difficult for some people, but today, it is very simple.

Seems to me that the article addresses an on-going albeit some what obvious trend in the personal health area and its management thereof. I find it interesting that the article pays more attention to PERS than to those that are used to assist people to maintain good health, like wearables.

Though the current prognosis for wearables is somewhat muddled, their acceptance and hence usage in the doctor-patient ecosystem has potential for significant savings in healthcare costs. Simpler and useful apps that do not ever compromise doctor-patient privacy and security of personal health data will help make this a reality.

Quite agree home health devices are going to increase in quite a big proportion. In years to come, medical and healthcare sector wuld see the best of technologies implemented to make things easier and comfortable for the patients. I would say internet itslef has reduced many doctor visits and if your doctor can come to you home virtually with all his prescriptions and medicines nothing like it. There are many senior citizens who would just finf this more comfortable.